1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to brassieres and methods of making same. More particularly, the present invention relates to brassieres having both circularly knit areas and non-circularly knit areas.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Modern brassieres are designed to accommodate both a need for comfort during wear, as well as a need for support. Therefore, a brassiere must provide both flexibility and freedom of movement, as well as breast support. However, these properties must also be balanced against production costs in order to produce a garment that is competitive in the market.
Brassieres are typically fashioned in a cut-and-sew manner, as exemplified for instance in U.S. Pat. No. 4,372,322 issued to Stern et al. A brassiere made in this manner may consist of more than a dozen separate fabric pieces sewn together. One advantage of the cut-and-sew method is that different areas of the brassiere can be given different properties, since the various fabric pieces can be of different knits, different yarns, etc. It may be advantageous, for example, to make some portions of the brassiere resiliently stretchable to hug the wearer""s body, while other portions are relatively unstretchable for providing greater support.
However, the cut-and-sew method is disadvantageous in that it entails a great number of cutting and sewing operations, which can be costly and time consuming to manufacture. Accordingly, methods of fashioning brassieres from circularly knit fabrics have been developed in an effort to improve the speed and efficiency of production. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,531,525 to Richards describes the use of a circular knitting machine to produce a seamless garment blank. To assemble a brassiere, the seamless garment blank is cut, folded, and sewn. U.S. Pat. No. 5,592,836 to Osborne describes a brassiere made from a circular-knit garment blank having a welt at one end with a fabric portion integrally knit thereto. The welt forms a torso-encircling portion of the brassiere. To assemble the brassiere, neck and armhole areas are cut in the fabric segment to define front and rear strap portions, which are sewn to complete the formation of the brassiere. However, circular knit garments do not provide the variety of support properties that is provided by a cut-and-sew garment.
Therefore, a need exists for a hybrid brassiere formed from one or more fabric components. The fabric components are, preferably, circularly knit bra side wing/back panels, preferably having an integrally knitted turned welt comfort band and one or more components that are weft knit, warp knit, woven, or non-woven fabric components. A hybrid brassiere provides a garment having the advantages of the cut-and-sew method of production, as well as the advantages of the circular knit method of production. That is, different areas of a brassiere may be given different properties, while maintaining speed and efficiency of production.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a hybrid brassiere having seamless circularly knit components with an integrally knit band and other fabric components, such as warp knitted, weft knitted, woven, or non-woven components.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such a brassiere having a pair of side wings/back panels that are circularly knit and a pair of breast cups that are weft knit, warp knit, woven, or non-woven.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide such a brassiere having a pair of side wings/back panels that are circularly knit, a body encircling portion that is knitted in during the circular knitting process to provide a seamless, comfort band, and breast cups that are weft knit, warp knit, woven, or non-woven.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a brassiere having a pair of circularly knit side wings/back panels, a circularly knit band being a turned welt preferably forming a body encircling portion, and a pair of breast cups formed of one or more layers of fabric that may be a woven, warp knitted, weft knitted or non-woven component.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide such a brassiere having a pair of circularly knit side wing/back panels, a circularly knit turned welt forming a body encircling portion, and a pair of breast cups formed of two layers of fabric having a supporting separate layer of fabric between, such as a non-woven in which the turned welt forms a seamless, comfort band.
It is a yet further object of the present invention to provide a method of making a brassiere having circularly knit components or areas and non-circularly knit components or areas using a minimal number of manufacturing steps.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention are achieved by a hybrid bra or brassiere having a pair of breast cups, preferably a center gore or portion disposed between the breast cups, and a pair of side wings/back panels to connect each breast cup to the back of the brassiere. The hybrid brassiere has one or more additional components, that are of a weft knit, warp knit, woven, or non-woven fabric construction. The brassiere may also include a pair of adjustable shoulder straps. Each strap is connected to a breast cup and a side wing/back panel. The brassiere may also have a pair of arcuate underwire portions, with one arcuate underwire portion adjacent or connected to each breast cup to provide additional breast support. The underwire may be disposed in an arcuate fabric tube, thereby providing increased comfort to the wearer. Alternately, a heat shrinkage yarn may be used to form areas of support that can act as underwire.